A Helicopter Tried To Kill My Son and I

reply to post by ValentineWiggin


That is super odd. Why in the hell would a student with or without an instructor barrell towards people in a helicopter??? and touch down 15 feet from someone after flying eratically as you described??? That is a fantastic story in every sense!! 15 ft!!?!??!?!

I don't know what to make of this.

You said it came down in your neighbors yard 2 houses down. Were you able to talk to them? Did they witness it? If they were home, surely they would hear a helicopter in their back yard and venture out to inspect.
Let me guess, they weren't home??

Too many questions, not enough answers.... damn you gray area!!!

Hmm. I don't buy the autorotation bit. Could be a result of a medical emergency on the pilot's part. Could have been low blood sugar (which causes erratic behavior). I guess the fact the pilot was coming right at her, actually kicked up dirt, and had another go when she was in her yard is a mystery. It sounds deliberate IMO.

Firearms- get a Remington 870 tactical shotgun. The pistol grip is comfy. Use a light load shell for home defense. Good for giving bad guys lead injections. BTW...DO NOT SHOOT AT AIRCRAFT!

Seriously, I am glad you and your child are safe. I can't imagine what you went through.
Very very odd incident.

I hate it when I doubt someones story. But this is so unlikely. Together with what is written in your location, I have to wonder if this is just proof that you are bored to death. I hope I'm wrong and you can give something that
I can take as proof for this happening to you. Please don't hate on me for being skeptical but you wouldn't be the first person on ATS who was just dying from boredom. I admit I haven't read thru the whole thread so I might have missed something. The reason I hate my doubt is because I have some of my own unbelievables. But I can be positive of those. I'd like to be positive of yours.

reply to post by six67seven


Sorry, I forgot that part. If the helicopter is at 1000 AGL and enter's the auto the pilots more than likely did not see the child or mother. If they did see them during the auto they should of "waved off" the auto.

reply to post by metal1992


You and Defcon5 both sound like real world pilots. Forgive me if I'm assuming too much there, but the posts read that way without knowing anything more, so this question would be to either/or both.

My question is simply this. Wouldn't they have seen the OP and her child?? I went back and re-read the OP to make sure I wasn't fuzzy on the facts, and she absolutely did say that she'd seen this Helicopter perform a seeming controlled crash in the neighboring field as it went out of view, then came over her field low. So...It isn't like they were a thousand feet or more up when an instructor or check pilot threw a Gotcha and told the other to go crash without crashing. They were low and, as described, stayed low...almost directly on top of her as the OP read.

My only perspective here is a helicopter tour I got over Hoover dam where by luck of the draw I got the right seat up front and a rather memorable view both out the front and through the clear foot/floor panel.Now I recall how quickly I lost reference to things as small as people as it took off, but I also recall how my eyes were drawn to and keyed directly on relative movement while it was low at the start and end. Bad judgement then?

Girl I've been having the same kind of week as you! The problem with your hair, and now the crazy helicopter...just goes to show when it rains, it's a [snip] I will give you some advice. It may not be good advice, but it is what it is.
#1 Buy a bottle of wine
#2 Drink that bottle of wine
#3 Cry
#4 Cry some more

reply to post by Raxoxane


ya shoot the military copter, you will definitely win that battle!... Now that's how you get killed by the copter..

Originally posted by six67seven
reply to post by ValentineWiggin

 

That is super odd. Why in the hell would a student with or without an instructor barrell towards people in a helicopter??? and touch down 15 feet from someone after flying eratically as you described??? That is a fantastic story in every sense!! 15 ft!!?!??!?!

I don't know what to make of this.

You said it came down in your neighbors yard 2 houses down. Were you able to talk to them? Did they witness it? If they were home, surely they would hear a helicopter in their back yard and venture out to inspect.
Let me guess, they weren't home??

Too many questions, not enough answers.... damn you gray area!!!

I spoke to the neighbors, they heard it and said it sounded like it was going to come down on their house. Beyond that no one SAW it.

reply to post by ValentineWiggin



why not report to the authorities? maybe the NTSB can do something about it

Originally posted by SteffieJo
Girl I've been having the same kind of week as you! The problem with your hair, and now the crazy helicopter...just goes to show when it rains, it's a sh*tstorm. I will give you some advice. It may not be good advice, but it is what it is.
#1 Buy a bottle of wine
#2 Drink that bottle of wine
#3 Cry
#4 Cry some more

I have bronchitis and am on medicine I can't drink with.
WAaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Originally posted by choos
reply to post by ValentineWiggin

 

why not report to the authorities? maybe the NTSB can do something about it

Already did, its in the OP

Originally posted by ValentineWiggin

Originally posted by Raxoxane
reply to post by ValentineWiggin

 

Well,if i was in your shoes,and if i had a rifle,or even a pistol-i would shoot at(warning shots) it if it came back and harassed us further and endangered my child.Bit drastic,i suppose.Stick close to your house and if it does return,get the number.Phone 911.And then shoot at it. (Dont sound like the weirdo idiot flying it has any concern for his own safety,anyway,leave alone you or your child's.)

While I have been contemplating getting a firearm, today has sealed the deal.

I'm totally understanding of your concerns...but lets think for a second about this...lets say you shot the guy in the helicopter as he was coming at you (out of pure fear)...thus he wouldn't have "recovered" or whatever...and kept from hitting you in the manner he did...you might not be typing this message if you had that gun THEN that you seem to want NOW...

I'm totally for gun ownership...but please THINK...how is a gun EVER going to save you from a helicopter?

i do not buy any of this....attention seeking at best

Originally posted by Sly1one

Originally posted by ValentineWiggin

Originally posted by Raxoxane
reply to post by ValentineWiggin

 

Well,if i was in your shoes,and if i had a rifle,or even a pistol-i would shoot at(warning shots) it if it came back and harassed us further and endangered my child.Bit drastic,i suppose.Stick close to your house and if it does return,get the number.Phone 911.And then shoot at it. (Dont sound like the weirdo idiot flying it has any concern for his own safety,anyway,leave alone you or your child's.)

While I have been contemplating getting a firearm, today has sealed the deal.

I'm totally understanding of your concerns...but lets think for a second about this...lets say you shot the guy in the helicopter as he was coming at you (out of pure fear)...thus he wouldn't have "recovered" or whatever...and kept from hitting you in the manner he did...you might not be typing this message if you had that gun THEN that you seem to want NOW...

I'm totally for gun ownership...but please THINK...how is a gun EVER going to save you from a helicopter?

Just for threats in general. I have not feared for my life like this until today, I don't plan on shooting any helicopters.

reply to post by Wrabbit2000


Wrabbit,

Good question, without beign there and I am just quessing here but if a helicopter was flying at a low altitude at a good amount of speed the pilots might not of had enough time to maneuver the aircraft to avoid flying over the child, but I could be wrong.

Trying to interpret what a person with no pilot experiance saw is kind of difficult. This is by no means meant as a put down. She discribed what she saw to the best of her ability. Even if I saw what happened, without me being in contact with the pilots or being in the cockpit myself it I could still get their intentions wrong.

It's not military according to your description of this. Do you live in Alabama ? Big training center at Ft Rucker. I don't think even Ft Rucker has blue helicopters. The craft they do have at Rucker have big yellow or other color numbers painted on the side. ( huge numbers , cant miss-em ) see here

This sound like a private Helicopter more likely a Robinson.
See photo here

It also could have been the civilian version of the Bell .see here


From your description of the maneuvers the craft was performing, I would say they were practicing Auto Rotations. Auto Rotation are also know as an emergency procedure. I don't think they were trying to scare you, but I do think they were being careless in where they were practicing. The Robinson is hard to handle during auto an rotation . Most pilots that have few hours in them get it wrong first time , even third time out.. It appears like this person is in need of some serious instruction. Some people I know have crashed there Robinson in an auto rotation practice and busted the air frame first time out.

First thing that gives this away as a civilian aircraft is that hovered it so close to you, that is a big time FAA violation. They will take his license for that, not to mention This pilot was practicing to close to homes, might have even deviated from his flight plan. This guy is in deep . Radar will pick this from a regional FAA center. This type of flying is forbidden in populated areas, unless there was really an emergency on board. There is also another maneuverer that the military does in an in flight emergency and in your description, that maneuverer is not in your description.

By all mean please call the FAA and report this. The FAA will have what they call a track for a 24 hour period of the area and will pin down to whom was flying the craft.

This does not sound like a military aircraft according to your description. The military does have ranges for this type of practice because it can be very dangerous. The military never does these practice ( Auto Rotations) in a civilian aera. I used to fly the Uh-60 Blackhawk at one time for the military and a few others, from your description of the craft it is not military.

The hovering low to the ground next you sounds questionable at best, because this is a big time violation for any helicopter pilot. unless it was real emergency or the pilot had trouble recovering the craft from the auto rotation. which bring to mind as to why they were doing this anywhere near a populated area.. I never heard of any civilian practicing so close either. there are reasons as to why this is forbidden by the FAA but i wont get into the IP ( instructor pilot) stuff here.

Originally posted by ValentineWiggin

Originally posted by artistpoet
Don't panic
It sounds like they were trying to scare you and succeeded
Rouge military types are not unusual
They may well have thought it was great fun or using you as part of some practice
My friend had military police from a top secret base try freak him and let him know they knew he had parked outside their gates out of curiosity - they even traced him to his work and contacted his Masonic boss.
Keep clear of them they are not nice people but probably know you are no threat
Again they do this sort of thing on purpose to freak people - little things please little minds etc

Whoever it is, is freaking sick. You do NOT scare a mother that way, you do NOT make a mother afraid for her child's life. This was absolutely TWISTED and I cannot believe that a human being is capable of it. How dare someone make me afraid to walk in my own field. In my own yard. Afraid to be in MY OWN house. Whoever it was scared me enough that my son was scared from the look on my face. I am livid, what do you mean by rogue military type? Who are these people?

Yes how dare them.

By the way, they DID.

My first reaction was that you encountered a pilot who was having some control issues do to a mechanical malfunction, or perhaps a novice pilot doing some unauthorized soloing and almost busting his aircraft.

Did it look anything like this?... Video

The thing that gets me is that ground contact like you describe would be bad news for anyone but an experienced pilot, as you can see in the video.

Originally posted by boncho
reply to post by artistpoet

Rouge military types are not unusual

 

What shade of rouge are these military types?

My first thought was Khmer Rouge military types, but they simply would have had to cover way too much distance.

Originally posted by Wrabbit2000
My question is simply this. Wouldn't they have seen the OP and her child??

I'm not a chopper pilot by any stretch, but I believe that once they idle the collective, and allow the engine to disengage, they are committed until they finish. I'm not absolutely positive about this, but I think that if they try and re-engage the engine at the last minute they will not necessarily have enough RPM's to generate lift, and actually counteract the RPM's they've build up in the auto-rotation. That can cause them to slam into the ground rather then land softly. Metal1992, most likely knows a lot more about this then I do.